Alac nervously lead Rya's Golem into the hidden hideout of the old bandits group that were used a cannon fodder when they tried to ambush Quinus' convoy almost three weeks ago. Alac knew that he would have to give Rya and Quinus information about the Duke's plans or locations of some of his secret hideouts, and it seemed like this time has come.

'I hoped that this demon had forgotten about us, but it seems like luck isn't on our side.' Alac thought with despair.

Alac, Mast, Cyril, and Doug all had the blood contract's geas marks on their Mana Veins which will kill them if they tried to betray Rya or the Crown Prince. If Rya were to use her Seer Stone on them she would see the blown particles floating around their Veins.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" The two guards on either side of the stone entrance said as they leveled their spears at Alac.

"It's just me and the boys... I got the package that the Duke was expecting..." Alac said as he and his group walked up to the two guards.

The two guards looked behind Alac and his crew to see this gorgeous woman coming up from behind.

Rya smirked and winked at the two making them blush which made them lower their weapons.

'Hehe!... I should have controlled one of my human version of my golems earlier... It's fun to tease men... Hold on!?... Did I just think it was fun?... God damn... I've really become a woman... Probably the only thing left is to get pregnant with Quin's kid... Like that's going to anytime soon,' Rya thought to herself as she walked by the two guards who stared at her ass and chest as they passed. She didn't know why but getting stared at by other men made her excited and powerful, but she was even more excited to know that none of them could touch her except for Quinus.

Alac and his crew led her down a stone stairway until they reached the bottom and were at the entrance to the bandits hideaway was. It wasn't easy to spot at first but when Mast tapped this giant boulder three times it slowly started to move until it opened up to this giant crevasse that had multiple wooden structures that were built by the dead bandits. It looked like it was big enough to support a thousand men or more.

"Impressive... So do you have any more men working with you besides those two guards," Rya asked as she and the crew walked into the cavern.

Alac swallowed the lump in his throat. He was worried that they would be punished for hiring for new guys to join the crew. They used to be a ten person team before six of Alac's men died in the ambush. If he didn't replace some of them then Alaric would ask questions.

"W-We have two move working the Warehouse... The Duke sent some of his armory to this location," Alac said with a shaky voice.

"Show me," Rya ordered.

"Yes mam!" Alac shouted as he and the rest of crew hurried to the Warehouse at the back of the cavern.

The bandit's hideout was a massive cavern that had many small wooden huts built up the walls and a few wooden bridges and stairways were built to get to the higher level huts. It was crude in aesthetic but it was functional and it would work.

'This place feels like something out of... Well? A fantasy... Meh... I don't get why I'm cool with the medieval and renaissance style architecture but when I'm in a cave like this it just makes me feel uneasy...' Rya thought as she followed the crew down the pathway to the Warehouse.

The Warehouse was a bigger building that was the size of a warehouse and the door was open and inside were two men.

They were busy moving around wooden crates that had weapons in them. One of the crates was open and Rya could see spears in them. Their wasn't anything else that was notable about the weapons but the crates themselves had an interesting insignia on the sides of all of them. Or maybe it was more of a branding of some kind.

'Is that a merchants branding?... I wonder which merchant is working with Alaric?... I'll have to ask later,' Rya thought as the crew approached the two new members.

"Ah! Mister Alac!... We still have 20 crates to go through!" one of the men yelled out as he noticed Alac approaching them.

The two men were both wearing leather armor that had the insignia on the chest plate.

"I'm not here for that... Just continue with what you—"

"Wow!... Who's the lady?!" the other guy asked as he noticed the gorgeous woman standing next to Cyril and Doug.

"Ugh!... Never mind!... Come here and I'll introduce you," Alac sighed as he gestured for the two men to come over.

The two men nodded and made their way over to the group.

"So, who's the fine lady?" the first man asked as he was checking Rya out.

Rya was wearing her brown dress and the red scarf around her neck. It was one of the conservative dresses that she made her golems were but the did little to hide their figures.

Alac, Mast, Cyril, and Doug all panicked on the inside due to how Alaric treated their subordinates who weren't civil when talking to him. He would brand them with a hot iron or use an artifact on them that would inflict pain. They were waiting for her to discipline the men but it never came. They heard her giggle before she spoke up.

"Well, I'm here to make sure that you boys don't mess anything up. The name's Rya. Nice to meet you," Rya smiled while crossing her arms underneath her big breasts to make them look bigger.

The two men couldn't help but stare at her huge tits. They were practically salivating just by looking at her.

"I'm uh... I'm Gareth, ma'am!"

"A-And I'm... I'm uh... Uh... What was my name again?" the other man was flustered as he was struggling to remember his own name.

"Stop being an idiot, Jack! And stop staring at her chest!" Gareth smacked his partner's head.

"OW!... But you were—"

*Smack!*

Gareth hit his friend's head one more time.

"Ow! Ow!... You didn't have to hit me twice!"

"Just shut up or you'll scare her away!" Gareth glared at Jack.

Rya giggled a little bit before smiling.

"You two are funny... I like funny guys..."

Alac, Cyril, Doug, and Mast just watched as their secret boss interacted with the two men. They wished that Gareth and Jack could scare her away but they didn't know why she was teasing them. They new her main squeeze was the Crown Prince but she was acting so strange.

"So... Are you going to show me the way or do I have to look sad and lonely over here while you two talk," Rya pretended to sound sad and lonely.

"N-No!... Of course, we can escort—I mean, show you around miss!" Gareth replied as he and his partner escorted the sexy humanoid golem through the Warehouse which only took them fifteen minutes. Gareth and Jack were trying to impress her so much that they told her everything that they knew.

The only thing that they knew about the insignia was that it was a forgery of the most popular merchant in all of Agon called Bokor Clive Trading Company. It was a company that was the most powerful in the human kingdoms for shipping goods across the borders with most of the kingdoms. The only exception being the Holy Alliance. Alac only tried to help with some of the information but he didn't know who was in charge of forging the BCT's insignia or how they sneakily put these deliveries into BCTs' shipments. But that was how Alaric was able to pay all the Minor Nobles to side with him.

"You have no idea how this got here?..." Rya asked.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I don't know. We just get it and inventory it," Gareth replied.

"B-But sometimes we get a message about shipping things out but all we do is box them up and leave them at a different location... Someone picks them up but we never see the faces of the men who pick them up," Jack added trying to start any conversation he could with the beautiful woman.

"Hey!? I was going to tell her that!"

"But you've been hogging her! Let me talk with her!"

"Back off, Jack!... You're too nervous to talk to any woman let alone a goddess!... Go finish inventoring the new stuff!"

"Why don't you, Gareth!... You've been talking nonstop!"

"What are you implying?!"

"You know exactly what I'm implying!"

The two of them were ready to fight each other and Rya was a little amused by this.

"Hey... Hey, you two... Stop fighting..." Rya ordered the two of them.

Gareth and Jack were surprised that the lady was still talking to them and they immediately stopped their fighting.

"I'm flattered by your interest in me... But I'm not looking for a relationship at the moment. Sorry, guys," Rya said with a sad smile.

"N-No!... I didn't mean it like that!" Gareth shouted.

"We're not trying to hit on you!... I swear!" Jack replied.

"Oh?... You weren't?... Well how about this... If one of you two can get us a proper inventory count on everything in here... Then... I'll let the winner hold my cloak. How does that sound?" Rya replied with a smirk.

The two men stopped and looked at each other before they started smiling.

"Hahaha... I'm going to win—H-Hey!?" Jack was going to boast until Gareth pushed him away and he rushed to a shelf and picked up a piece of paper and a pen.

"Ha!... Too slow as always, Jack! Milady's cloak is as good as mine!" Gareth boasted.

"Well it's a good thing that you suck at counting, Gareth!... I'll prove to her that I can be the better man!" Jack replied while rushing over to get a pen and paper himself.

"Oh please!... You can't count your own fingers!"

"Can so!"

"Gah!?... Get out of my way!"

Rya smiled at their competitiveness and she watched them starting to count everything in the warehouse. Both the went and ran down the aisles and were counting everything in the crates and barrels.

Alac, Mast, Cyril, and Doug have never seen any of their Subordinates act like this before and they were stunned.

"W-Why are they working so hard for a chance to hold her cloak?" the young Cyril asked.

"That's the power of a Dark Elf beauty, Cyril... Be weary of beautiful women like her... For when she has you wrapped around her fingers... There's no escape," the older Mast warned.

Cyril swallowed at the warning but he was a little excited at the thought of being manipulated by a beauty like Rya.

"You guys need to lighten up... I'm just giving your guys some motivation... They seem to like the idea of getting something for free. I'm just helping them out. No harm, no foul," Rya said with a smirk.

Alac grimaced at Rya's statement, but he thought better of himself to question her.

"Uh... W-Well, it seems that you have everything in order, milady," Alac replied.

"Hahaha... Well, those two should be busy for a while... Let's go somewhere more private... Getting inventory counts are all fun and all, but that's not why I'm here," Rya said playfully, but it made the four men shiver in fear. To them she sounded maniacal and they were terrified.

"Y-Yes, ma'am! M-My office is over this way," Alac replied nervously.

"Great... Let's talk business, shall we?" Rya said while walking towards Alac.

The four men led Rya out of the Warehouse and went to a Three-Story building that looked nicer than the others in the cave.

They entered the building and went inside to the back office. Rya sat down in front of Alac's desk while the others stood by the door.

"I see you replaced some of your men since we last met... Who are they more loyal to... You or the Duke?..." Rya inquired.

Alac gulped at her words.

"Uh... They're loyal to me, milady... The two in the Warehouse came from one of the Duke's hidden warehouses. It seemed more like the Duke was annoyed with them and were punishing us with them for... For our failure to kill Lord Johan... And the other two were some locals that we brought aboard this operation. They don't know who we are working for but they know it's a Major Lord," Alac answered honestly.

Rya smirked at Alac's answer.

"Well, I suppose you four can't do all the work in such a large operation... So, it makes sense to see a few new faces," Rya said happily.

The four men were a little relieved that she wouldn't do something terrible to the new guys.

"I'm glad you agree, milady," Alac replied.

Rya nodded and clapped her hands, "Now for the reason why I sent my golem here. I like to know we're the Duke is hiding all his money."

Alac and the three other guys started to sweat profusely at her demand.

"Uh... Uh... Well, uh..." Alac stuttered.

Rya giggled a bit seeing these four hardened rogues scared.

"What's wrong Alac? Do I need to convince you more?" Rya asked playfully.

"Ah! N-No, I mean, I will tell you! B-But if we leave this area, then the Duke will know that we are compromised," Alac explained.

Rya tilted her head and looked at Alac with an unamused look, "You think that my plan is to send you four to raid and steal from the Duke?"

Alac glance over at Doug who didn't know what to say.

"Well, if we leave this base, the Duke will find out sooner or later. We can't afford anyone knowing we're the ones who have betrayed him. So, we'd have to move somewhere else," Mast stated.

That's when Rya wagged her pointer finger at them, "Now, now... You think I'm going to throw you away like garbage? I know our first meeting was rough, but give me a little credit"

"Huh?..." Mast questioned.

Rya chuckled a bit, "Let me tell you, you're more useful to me alive then dead... And I reward those who help me... So, my plan is to make this place Alaric's only safe haven from me... I need to know where he's hiding his gold and how he's been earning it behind the nobility's back... I have my guesses about how he is getting his money, but I don't know where to look... That's where you come in... Alac, you were high enough up the chain to know what Alaric has been doing..." She said with a raised brow.

Alac gulped and started sweating bullets. He knew some things but not everything and the images of getting tortured by Rya flashed through his mind.

"I know that look... I'm not going to torture you Alac... You and your men signed the blood contact and you didn't lie to me when I tortured you so you've earned my trust... Also..."

Rya stood up from the desk and walked up the the nervous Alac. He reflectively took a step back as the golem approached him.

Alac didn't know what to do when the golem was staring at him straight into his eyes. He thought that she might hurt or something. But what happened next stunned all four of the men when Rya bowed her head to them.

"I'm sorry that I put you through that Alac and the rest of you... I took it out on you because one of my friends was almost killed in your ambush... It was only when I finally met Alaric was when I realized that it wasn't fully your fault... It was him who put you in that situation... You were just his pawns... I might be able to heal physical wounds but I can't heal mental scars... I can promise that you won't be used as disposable tools..."

Alac never had someone this powerful apologize to him, not even the Duke. And it hit him that this might be an opportunity for him and his men to rid themselves of their indentured certitude to the Duke finally. Sure they got paid well, but they knew enough for it to be a problem and the Duke showed them that quitting wasn't an option when a different crew thought they could retire when they earned enough gold. Alac was friends with Dante when they worked together. But when he and his team were found mysteriously dead in a burning inn was a message to all the other crews and soldiers that the Duke was serious about them keeping their mouths shut.

Alac swallowed the lump in his throat before asking, "What do you plan to do with us when all this is over?"

Rya straightened up and looked him in the eyes again, "Well?... I don't see a reason to keep you four under the Blood contact's curse. So, I would rid it from your bodies and let you be free... Why? Are you looking for another job?..." She joked on the latter part of her sentence.

"Actually... I would like to retire from this line of work... I've seen to many of my friends die in these past few years... And the Duke... I mean, I would really like to retire..."

Rya was starting to understand his situation now.

'Shit... Is this like a Mafia thing?... Like this guy was hired to do all of Alaric's dirty work and he can't leave type of thing?... Okay... I guess he wants to change his life.'

Rya showed him a warm smile, "Well, I guess we should get started so you can do what you want to do in life..."

Alac couldn't believe his ears, and his mind was thinking, 'I can be free of this crap!'

"S-Sure thing... But before I give you the information on what I know... What exactly are your plans, Milady?"

Rya had a twinkle in her eye and she had a smirk on her lips. She had been waiting for him to ask her this, "Simple... I want this hidden base to be the Duke's only refuge once everything he holds dear falls apart," She said in an eerily calm tone.

Alac was shocked and the other three men were in awe at Rya's confidence.

'Is she actually going to do it?... Is she really going to take out the Duke?' Alac thought.

"B-But why do you want to give him no other choice than to come here? What's the point?" Alaric questioned.

"Frankly, I would prefer to kill him where he stands. But when my golems were spying on him it turns out that he's more clever than I thought. He had a cube Artifact that disrupts mana and my golems fall apart. I'm assuming to be a similar thing if I were to throw a fireball at him to. So when everything fails and I'm able to take him down. I'm assuming that he has an exit plan for when we come for him," Rya explained.

That's when the four men understood where Rya was coming from.

"So you wish to send him here, so we can end him?" Mast asked.

"Yep! That's why I need to know some of the locations of his other hideouts and shell businesses. It's the best way for me to turn up the pressure on him. Because I hoped he would have slipped up these past two weeks but he's too good and I don't want to wait for him to dictate his next move on his own accord. From what I can tell, he has a lot of Minor Noble Families under his thumb, and his goal would be to use them in hopes to rile up the citizens into an uprising all throughout the kingdom... That becomes harder to do if money isn't flowing freely from the nobles and into the city's coffers. He'll be forced to speed up his plans, and that's when I will strike," Rya confidently spoke.

'She's good... I can see why the Duke was so scared of her. She's already a step ahead of him... Damn...' Alac thought.

"So you want to rid the Duke of all other possible hideouts besides this one? And you want us to find out which Noble houses are loyal to the Duke," Doug asked.

"Correct," Rya replied.

"I can do that, Rya. But are you sure the Duke isn't onto you?" Alac asked.

"Nope! But even if he is... My plans are already in motion. But things will be sped up if I know where to look," Rya answered with a smirk.

Alac had a determined look on his face as he walked over to his desk and opened when the drawers that had maps in it.

"I don't know how the Duke makes his gold but I know where he likes to hide them," Alac said as he laid a map of the entire Fiafyr Kingdom and it's surrounding countries.

Rya, Doug, Cyril, and Mast approach the desk and watched as Alac stand marking the map.

"So here are all of the locations where the Duke likes to store his gold. And then these are the locations where the Duke keeps weapon stashes. And these are the locations of some of his businesses, they are legit, but maybe they have paperwork leading to these shell companies that you were asking for. I've marked down all the ones I'm aware of," Alac informed the others.

Rya studied the map and noticed that most of Alaric's hideouts were located inside of Veridian Enclave which was Baron Alistair's territory. His lands border Duke Alaric's Divalo Domain and Viscount William's Silverhaven Domain. This surprise door at first but then it made sense to hide your stuff somewhere else that isn't under your own nose.

"Can you draw a 500 mile radius around Tairal?" Rya asked Alac.

He nodded and rummaged through another drawer in his desk until he pull out a ball of twine a ruler and a wood nail. He used the ruler down by the key on the lower right side on the map to get the 50 mile difference and added it up before he cut the piece of twine and attached it to the nail. He then placed the nail where the capital city was while using the other end of the string to measure the 500 mile distance.

Rya watched saw that the largest number of the hideouts and weapons stashes were inside of the 500-mile mark, but most of the businesses were located inside Silverhaven domain to the farthest East of the kingdom. She will have to become creative if she wants to reach those with her golems alone. But all in all this was a good start.

"Excellent... Is there anything else I should know? Are there any secret passages that the castle has? Any underground tunnels? Anything that can be useful," Rya said with a smile.

"Well, I think the Duke has started to make new hideouts inside of the Divalo Domain, again. The Prime Minister's men can no longer investigate him now that his punishment was served over twenty years ago. I believe it only lasted ten years but he rushed to get most of his finances out of his domain before the Prime Minister's men were allowed to investigate his holdings," Alac answered.

This made Rya's smile widen. "So the Prime Minister still doesn't have any evidence that the Duke is committing any crimes against the kingdom? I wonder what would happen to there fragile partnership if Duval was to learn where the Duke is hiding his secrets? Do you think that this is something the Prime Minister would be interested in?" Rya asked with a wicked grin.

Alac's eyes widen in understanding.

"I believe he would love to get his hands on this information. He's been trying to cripple him financially for decades..."

Rya looked up with a satisfied grin, "That's music to my ears... I'll have my golem bring this map back to the capital... She'll be back in a few days. Her name is QT and she can't speak more than two words sentences. Unless I take control," She said as she folded up the map and hide it in between her cleavage.

"So, is there anything else you need from us?" Alac asked with a raised brow.

Rya stopped and thought for a moment when she heard something in the distance. She had a glint in her eye while taking off her cloak and handing it to Cyril. Who hesitated to take it at first.

Rya smiled, "Just do what Alaric requires of you until I talk to you through QT."

They all looked confused and saw the glowing azure eyes fading into the normal blue eyes of the golem and her smile disappeared to its default stoic look.

"Huh? Milady?" Doug asked.

Before they could ask another question QT turn on her heels and bolted out of the office quicker than the blink of an eye.

"Damn!?... Those things are insane!" Cyril said as he looked toward where the golem was standing at but she was gone. Leaving only wind in her wake.

"How can everyone stand against one of those things let alone an army?" Mast added.

"I don't know... But I'm glad I'm not longer on the receiving end of the Dark Elves and their golems..." Alac replied as he sat in his chair and sighed out on relief.

Doug looked at the cloak Cyril was holding and pointed at it.

"Hey?... Why did she give you her cloak? It's not cold..."

Cyril looked at the cloak and held it out for everyone to see.

"I'm not—"

Cyril stopped his words when he heard two sets of feet getting louder when all of a sudden the door burst open to Gareth and Jack fighting in the doorway.

"What is going on here!?" Alac yelled.

"I finished the inventory first!" Gareth roared as he was elbowing Jack's face.

"That's bull, and you know it! I finished first, and you tackled me!" Jack screamed back.

"Tackled you!? But you tripped—Huh!?"

Both Gareth and Jack saw Cyril holding Rya's cloak, and they glared at the young man.

"You!?! You stole our prize!" Jake growled.

"What?"

"Yeah! Let's get him, Jack!"

Cyril took off running, and the two men chased after him.

"Here, take the stupid cloak! I don't want it!" Cyril screamed while running away.

"Oh! So now you insulted our beautiful lady! We need to take him home to respect women!" Jack yelled out while trying to tackle Cyril, who swiftly avoided him.

Alac and the others sighed and shook their heads in shame as Doug and Mast tried to stop Gareth and Jack from tackling Cyril.

***

In the cave outside the entrance to the hideout stood the two guards. One started yawning and the other smacked him on the back of his head.

"Stop it! Don't do that again. What if someone is watching us? We'll get in trouble!"

"Ouch! What the in Hells?... Like anyone knows that we are here?... Frankly the only exciting thing we've seen in days was that woman... I've never seen a girl like that before. And she had a beautiful figure. I bet you that her ass is as tight as a vice grip."

"Shut up! She's not interested in the likes of us. I've never seen her before. She's probably a noble or something. But we can't mess with her. I'm sure her family would send a squad to hunt us down."

"Ha! As if! I bet she's a spy or something. Coming to deliver some news for the boss or something."

"Don't be ridiculous. If she was a spy then she won't have a body like that."

"Oh come on. Don't tell me that you've never fantasized about having a woman like that in your bed? Or would you rather have—"

*Whoosh!*

The men were interrupted when a sudden gust of wind blew out the magical torches and they stumbled over. They didn't see Rya's Golem speeding by them as she left the cave and made her way back to the capital city by the end of the day.

"W-What in the hells was that? A monster?" One of the guards asked his partner.

"I don't know. But we need to let the boss know that there's a monster on the loose."

The two men ran back to the hideout were Alac had to lie and say the dealt with the monster they thought they saw.